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Before we begin today's episode of Renewing youg Mind, we invite you to stay with us through the end of the program to hear how you can request a featured hardcover book from Ligonier Ministries.
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When God saves us with his saving grace, with the initial work of regeneration by which we were brought to faith and the justification, not only does he save us, but then he adds to that saving grace further gifts that strengthen our Christian experience, our Christian walk, and enables us to be involved in carrying out the ministry that has been entrusted to the church. And that ministry is that which is entrusted not only to the pastors of the church or the shepherds of the flock, but to the whole flock.
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What a responsibility we have as Christians to be the bearers of God's gift of grace. Welcome to the Sunday edition of Renewing youg Mind. I'm glad you've joined us this Lord's day. We're continuing with Dr. R.C. sproul's sermon series. From Paul's Letter to the Ephesians Today we see that through Christ's death and resurrection, each of us has been gifted to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ. Here's Dr. Sprould now on our role as members of the Christian Church.
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We're going to continue with our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and we're in the fourth chapter, and I will be reading beginning at verse seven, and I'll read through verse 16. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore he says, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. Now this he ascended what does it mean but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Paul begins this section of the Epistle with these words, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. I'd like to take just a moment to explain a little bit about the very concept that's central to this portion of the text, namely the concept of grace. The Greek word charis, from which the English word charismatic comes, is used here, translated by the English word grace. Grace, and it refers to a particular type of grace. Grace, by definition, is something that God bestows on people that can't possibly be earned or merited by anything that we do. In that regard, grace is similar to mercy and is distinguished from justice. Justice is something we do earn. Justice is something we do deserve. And at the heart of the Gospel, we are delivered from that which we deserve, namely the just judgment of God. So grace is often defined simply as unearned or unmerited favor. Characteristically, we distinguish among different kinds of divine grace. The most common distinction we hear is that distinction that we use between what we call special grace and then what we call common grace. Special grace usually refers in the first instance to saving grace, that is a grace or a mercy or a gift that God gives only to believers. Saving grace is not poured out in the hearts and souls of unbelievers. In fact, it is saving grace that brings the believer to faith and to salvation. But apart from that special kind of saving grace, God also pours out grace and mercy and an abundance of gifts and blessings to all mankind. Our Lord teaches that the rain falls upon the just as well as on the unjust. That the fact that the unbeliever's field bears crops because of the rain that nurtures the seed is not something that is deserved by the pagan farmer, but is an experience of God's blessing that comes from grace. But common grace does not refer merely to those benefits and blessings that God gives to unbelievers, but also the common gifts of grace that he bestows upon believers as well. As a Christian, I have been a recipient of God's saving grace, his special grace in that regard. But also the rain helps my grass to grow. And the blessings that he pours out on all mankind also are enjoyed by believers. They're not just simply given to unbelievers. This morning I went to my doctor for a routine checkup, and while we were there, he got my file out and he looked at some past MRIs and CAT scans of my lungs and that sort of thing. And he showed me these pictures and it was an astonishing thing to see how advanced modern medical technology is. And of course, I was receiving the benefit of that modern technology. And the pagan receives benefits from that as well. But that is another aspect or dimension of common grace. Now, there's still another kind of special grace in addition to saving grace. And this is the third type of grace I'm going to speak about tonight. And it's principally the subject of the main portion of the text that I've just read. And that's the grace that we can call the enabling grace of God. So that when God saves us with his saving grace, with the initial work of regeneration by which we were brought to faith, and the justification, not only does he save us, but then he adds to that saving grace further gifts that strengthen our Christian experience, our Christian walk, and enables us to be involved in carrying out the ministry that has been entrusted to the church. And that ministry is that which is entrusted not only to the pastors of the church or the shepherds of the flock, but to the whole flock. And it is this enabling grace that is in view here, where Paul says to each one of us, not just to the pastors, not just to the apostles, not just to the New Testament prophets, but to every believer, to the rank and file Christian. This special grace is not merely offered, but it is given to us. And it is given according to a certain metric. And that metric is the measure that is determined by Christ himself. Here the apostle says, it is given according to the measure of Christ's gift. And He Himself, namely Jesus, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. The first two, we can assume, refer to the foundational gifts that Christ gave to the church. He established the office of apostle, and to the apostles he transferred his own authority. In fact, the first apostle ever was Jesus himself, who was authorized and sent by the Father to the earth. And the Father gave authority to Christ. Then Christ gave the gift of apostleship to those individuals that he called. And he said, those who receive you, receive me. Those who reject you, reject me. And then he goes on, and some pastors and teachers. Now this is another enabling grace for the church that God has given to the church, not only those to be the foundation of the Church, the apostles and the prophets, but he's also given to the Church the ordinary offices of pastor and teacher. The two things that are said here are conjoined in the sense that the pastor has to teach and the teacher has to have pastoral inclinations as well. And so for 2,000 years, the church has benefited from the office of teachers and of pastors. We also know that for 2000 years, the church has been enormously harmed at times by pastors and teachers. Godless pastors and false teachers have done as much damage to Christianity as the false prophets did to Israel in the Old Testament. But in the main, these offices are given not for our destruction, but the purpose by which Christ enables the church to have pastors and teachers is for our edification. But he is particularly specific here when he says the reason why Christ gave pastors and teachers. Listen to this. The reason is for equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. How different this is from the modern understanding of how the church is built. We have this kind of pyramid where at the top there are the pastors and the elders. And then down through the pyramid you have the peons who are the rank and file of the church. No, that's not the New Testament view. The function of the pastors and the teachers is to equip the saints to do the ministry, so that the ministry of the church is entrusted not to the pastors, but to the people, to the members. And the astonishing thing that Paul is mentioning here is that every member of the body of Christ has been gifted by Christ for ministry, so that every person in the body of Christ is to be involved in ministry. Evangelism, administration, singing in the choir, Mercy ministries, ministries to those women at the abortion clinic. All of those ministries are the task of the people of God. It's the task of the pastors and the teachers to make sure that the church is equipped for its duty. You have the gift, but you may need training, you may need information, you may need more understanding of the truth of God. But it's not like we hire the pastor or the minister to do the work of ministry. No, we're the drill instructors, and we're there to help the troops become strengthened and equipped for the battle. Now, I. I didn't mean to pass over the role of the evangelist. I shouldn't do that. Because Paul mentioned that right after the prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. When we look at the structure of the New Testament church, we saw that the principal work of evangelism was done not inside the church, but outside the church. And the task of the evangelist was to proclaim the evangel, which is the New Testament word, Euangelian for gospel. If we look carefully at the Book of Acts, and we see the activity of the deacons and the apostles. In the first century church. They went out, Paul to the agora, to the marketplace and to the synagogues, and he proclaimed the gospel of Christ. And the sermons that we find in the Book of Acts of the Apostles contain what we call technically the kerygma. Kerygma comes from the Greek word charux, which is is the word that means proclamation or the preaching. And the kerygma had a clearly defined content. You've probably heard this lamentation from me before that there are very few Christians in our country today who have any idea what the gospel is. In years, I taught the Doctor of Ministry program in the seminary. Frequently I would have pastors in the class and I would say to them, tell me what the gospel is. And I would go to the blackboard and I would write down their definition of the gospel. And I would hear things like, well, the gospel is God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, or Jesus Christ forgives your sins, or you can be reconciled with Almighty God, or you can have a fulfilled life, a happy life, a meaningful life. All of those things may at least in part be true, but none of them adds up to the gospel. The gospel has to do with the announcement of the person and work of Christ. That's an object of content. Now, there's great value for me or for you to tell your neighbor what Christ has done for you and to give your personal testimony. But don't ever think that your personal testimony is the gospel. It's preliminary to the gospel. It may open up the door for you to have the opportunity to give them the gospel. But the gospel is a message about Jesus, who he is, what he did, and how the benefits of his work are appropriated to us by faith and by faith alone. So that was the task of the evangelists in the first century, was to proclaim the gospel, the kerygma. And then after people responded to the gospel and came into the church, then they were given what was called the didache or the teaching. That's what the teachers were supposed to do. A person responds to the gospel, they don't have any idea about what justification is or sanctification or any of that stuff. All they know is that they're sinners under the wrath of God and, and Jesus Christ came to save them from their sins and the cross and resurrection. They know that now when they come to the church, then they're catechized. They're given the instruction what you're experiencing right now, this very minute is did, okay? And remember, in the Book of Acts, we're told that the church came together on the Lord's Day to devote themselves to the teaching of the apostles. That's did, okay? That's being instructed to the end that they may be equipped and edified until we all come to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man that is a complete man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And then he goes on to this end for this purpose that we may no longer be children. You've heard it said. Maybe you've said it. I want a childlike faith. There's nothing wrong with a childlike faith. A childlike faith is a faith that puts implicit trust in in God, just like a little child has to trust their mother or their father because they don't know enough to make decisions on their own. Childlike faith is great. Childish faith is not so great. In fact, it's a sin. We are not permitted by God to remain babes. Oh, be babes in evil, but in understanding be men. We're called to grow up. We're called no longer to be infants in the faith, no longer children, but to grow up to the fullness of Christ. Now, why should we not be children? Here's what happens to infants and infantile Christians should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. That's the mark of the child who has no discernment. He is carried away. The newest and latest doctrine, the newest fad, introduced on Christian television. Their ears are tickled and they get carried away, like by the wind or by the waves, by every breeze that comes in their direction. We're called to grow up, to speak the truth in love, to grow up into all things, into him who is our head, even Christ, for whom the whole body is joined and knit together by whatever joint supplies. It's not just that we're knit together, but we're knit together for a reason. Because everything in that process of knitting is, as Paul explains in other passages in other books, is for the mutual benefit of the whole body. There's a reason why the knee bone is connected to the ankle bone or the shin bones connected, the ankle bone, the knee bone to the thigh bone, and all of that, because these joints work together so that we can function in a healthy manner. Joined and knit together by what every joint supplies. According to the effective working by which every part does its share and causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. He started this section by saying that Christ has given grace, an enabling grace to every one of us, but not just to tickle our fancy, but rather for a reason that the individual gifts, the individual grace that you have received is not simply for your benefit or even for the world, but it's for the church that this whole ministry strengthens the church. And I don't know what your gift is, but I know you have one because it's been distributed to you by the measure of Christ, because the whole church to be the whole church needs the whole church.
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How wonderful it is that Christ ascended as our Redeemer to supply his church with good gifts to further his kingdom. It's a real joy to go through Paul's Letter to the Ephesians in this methodical way. And if you've benefited from today's sermon, we'd like to offer you a hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul's commentary on Ephesians. Simply call us at 800-435-4343 with a donation. You can also give your gift online at renewingyourmind.org and join us next Lord's Day as Dr. Sproul continues his study of Ephesians here on Renewing your Mind.
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Sam.